The Luxembourg European Council (December 1997) highlighted participation in Community programmes as a way of intensifying the pre-accession strategy for the candidate countries.

As regards the ten candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe, namely Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, participation in Community programmes is already provided for in their respective Europe Agreements. These stipulate that the conditions for participation are determined by specific decisions of the respective Association Councils.

The present decisions thus establish the terms and conditions for the participation of these countries in Community programmes.

These countries may participate in all Community programmes that have been or will be open to them.

Their participation in the programmes will be subject to the same conditions, rules and procedures as those applied to the participants from Member States. Representatives of the candidate countries will be able to act as observers at the meetings of the committees for the programmes to which they are making a financial contribution.

The terms and conditions for the participation of the countries in each Community programme, in particular their financial contribution, are determined by the Commission and the competent authorities in each country.